Recently, it’s been no secret that I’ve fallen out of love with restomods. While at first I was all over them — quickly becoming Rush's resident Restomod Reporter — I soon grew tired of the predictability of the formula: take an existing car, slightly enhance the styling and powertrain, double the price, and call it a day. However, when I came across the Veloce 12, it was love at first sight.

To create the Veloce 12, Touring Superleggera took a Ferrari 550 Maranello, increased its power, kept the manual gearbox, and evolved the styling. The most significant changes have been made to the front end, which now features a much larger and more aggressive grille, a larger air intake, and sharper headlights — though the clusters remind me of the Porsche Taycan. You can still tell it’s based on a Ferrari platform, but it’s been modernised just enough. They’ve kept the DNA of the 550 Maranello among the reshaped surfaces, which are now made of carbon fibre. Overall, the Veloce 12 strikes the perfect balance between aggression and elegance in my eyes.

Under the long bonnet of the Veloce 12, you’ll find a 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 producing 496 bhp and 560 lb-ft (760 Nm) of torque. This gets the 0–60 mph sprint over in 4.4 seconds and allows the car to reach 199 mph. The best part is when you hit the top of the rev range — instead of pulling a paddle — you get to operate a glorious six-speed gated manual with a clutch pedal.

Before any of the cars are built, Touring Superleggera ensures that the engines from the donor cars are given a thorough overhaul. Parts like the gaskets, spark plugs, cooling system, and alternator are all upgraded, but I’ve saved the best part for last. To help extract extra power from the V12, Touring Superleggera worked with their partner Supersprint Exhausts to create a freer-flowing system that helps the V12 sing through the rev range.

Even though the Veloce 12 gets a power bump of 25 bhp, power isn’t the headline for this car. While power is modest by today’s standards, there’s an impressive amount of torque to complement it. While your internal organs may not be pressed against your spine, you’ll be overjoyed by the sound and sensation of acceleration, rather than just its sheer speed.

The carbon fibre body also houses significant changes to the suspension and chassis. Gone is the 550’s original suspension, and in its place is a bespoke setup by TracTive with adjustable dampers. Paired with a reinforced chassis, the architecture beneath the Veloce 12 has been brought right up to modern standards.

Thankfully, the modern interior trend of adding massive, million-inch screens to the centre console has been avoided. Instead, the Veloce 12 makes use of exquisite metalwork for its machined climate control switches, smooth centre console, and the iconic gated shifter. Elsewhere, the interior has been retrimmed with new leather. My favourite touch is the stitched silhouette of the Veloce 12 between the seats — a true mark of class.

Of course, there’s a cost if you want your own Veloce 12. Excluding the donor 550, a Veloce 12 will set you back £568,400 — rising to around £620,000 with a donor car included. That’s significantly more than the price of the 550’s spiritual successor, the new 12Cilindri. Personally, when I’ve seen other projects in this field, the price tags often seem hard to justify.

In this case, though, if you already have a 550 in the garage, it’s great value for money. And considering each Veloce 12 takes around 5,000 hours to build, the value becomes even clearer. If you want one, though, you’ll have to act fast — Touring Superleggera is only planning to build 30 cars.

The way Touring Superleggera has tackled this project feels like they’re building the 550 Maranello as if it were designed today. There’s no mistaking that a Ferrari 550 donates its powertrain and chassis as a starting point, but the tweaks have preserved the model’s reputation as a fast, elegant, V12-powered grand tourer. Well done, Touring Superleggera.